Donald Trump<\/a><\/span>, her aides and surrogates played the role of bad cop.<\/p>\nCampaign spokesman Nick Merrill took to task an NBC reporter who wrote about the coughing spell, posting on Twitter that the writer should \u201cget a life.\u201dThe five-paragraph story, by Andrew Rafferty, was titled \u201cHillary Clinton fights back coughing attack\u201d and reported that the \u201cfrog in Clinton\u2019s throat on Monday was one of the most aggressive she\u2019s had during her 2016 run.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jon Favreau, a former speechwriter for President Obama, asked via Twitter if \u201canyone on NBC, or anywhere else,\u201d was willing to defend the piece.<\/p>\n
The pushback signaled that Clinton\u2019s campaign intends to sharply counterattack news organizations that take questions about her health seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re trying to work the refs a little bit as they try to push back on the mainstream media\u2019s willingness to pick up on some of this stuff that\u2019s usually left to the fringes,\u201d Clinton surrogate Jim Manley explained.<\/p>\n
The Drudge Report and other conservative media sites have largely driven the coverage of Clinton\u2019s health, following the concussion she suffered in late 2012 and years before she announced her intention to run again for president.<\/p>\n
But Manley said the Democrat\u2019s camp has seen the coverage \u201cbleeding to the mainstream media\u201d in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
After Trump insinuated recently that Clinton wasn\u2019t healthy, the campaign responded forcefully, ripping Trump allies for concocting fake documents from Clinton\u2019s doctor.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re trying to stop it,\u201d Manley continued. \u201cI think they learned a long time ago that you can\u2019t just ignore these things. There\u2019s always a fine line between react or not, but in this day in age, to say nothing is often not the best way to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
Clinton aides and supporters see the healthcare stories as a bunch of baloney, and they want the media to cover it as such.<\/p>\n
One former Clinton aide called it a \u201ccomplete farce, and the only way to handle it is to say in no uncertain terms that Donald Trump is full of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former aide also agreed that the Clinton campaign wants to put pressure on the press.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that the fact that any mainstream publications would do anything but make this is a story about Donald Trump is completely out of the mainstream and why these claims have gotten worse,\u201d the former aide said. \u201cSome reporters have taken these claims at face value, and it\u2019s the reason this story is still out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those around the Clinton campaign insist Clinton World isn\u2019t worried that the health stories will damage her White House bid, though the latest pushback comes as polls of the race have tightened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact of the matter is there is no truth or factual evidence to debunk,\u201d the former aide said. \u201cShe is perfectly healthy. The only way is to challenge him to a pushup contest at the first debate.\u201d<\/p>\n
New revelations about Clinton\u2019s use of a private email server when she was secretary of State and a round of negative headlines about donors to the Clinton Foundation are mostly blamed for the closer poll results. Clinton continues to battle perceptions that she is untrustworthy, and the twin storylines have hurt her.<\/p>\n
Allies, however, maintain that voters aren\u2019t worried about the stories questioning her health.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the media deserves to be beat up on this because I think it\u2019s ridiculous. I really doubt that any American really cares about this,\u201d said Democratic strategist Brad Bannon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is as trivial as you can get. The media deserves pushback for giving so much coverage to this thing,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Both the Clinton and Trump campaigns have had a contentious relationship with the press.<\/p>\n
Reporters on the Clinton beat have complained about a lack of access to the candidate and the lack of a press conference for months. And Trump has frequently targeted reporters for ridicule by name while complaining of being treated poorly by the Fourth Estate.<\/p>\n
More recently, both campaigns have sought to improve their relationships with the press.<\/p>\n
Trump ended his blacklist of media organizations, announcing that news outlets banned from entering his events would again be allowed to cover him.<\/p>\n
Clinton this week allowed reporters to begin traveling with her on her campaign plane. She has repeatedly gone to the back of the plane to answer questions from the traveling press.<\/p>\n
Her joke about being allergic to Trump drew applause from a supportive crowd in Cleveland.<\/p>\n
But Kellyanne Conway, Trump\u2019s campaign manager, used the moment to highlight Clinton\u2019s standoffishness with the press.<\/p>\n
\u201cMust be allergic to media,\u201d Conway wrote on Twitter. \u201cFinally spent a minute [with] them.\u201d<\/p>\n
___
\nhttp:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/campaign\/294910-clinton-campaign-warns-media-to-tread-carefully<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=48159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=48159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=48159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=48159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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